Sun Life Profit Beats Analysts’ Estimates on Asia Bounce

Net income fell 25 percent to C$513 million ($511 million),
or 85 cents a share, from C$686 million, or C$1.15, a year
earlier, the Toronto-based firm said today in a statement.
Excluding some one-time items, profit was 94 cents a share,
compared with the 66-cent average estimate of 14 analysts
surveyed by Bloomberg.

“Our results reflect strong execution against our four
pillar strategy, including product and distribution enhancements
over the past year, and more favorable market conditions,”
Chief Executive Officer Dean Connor, 56, said in the statement.

Sun Life’s Asia unit reported operating net income of C$51
million, a 76 percent increase from a year earlier, according to
the statement. Insurance sales more than doubled and wealth
sales more than quadrupled in the Philippines from the same
period in 2012, the firm said.

Sun Life, owner of Boston-based money manager MFS
Investment Management, agreed to sell its U.S. annuities
business in December to a firm owned by Guggenheim Partners LLC
shareholders for $1.35 billion, cutting the insurer’s equity and
interest-rate risk. The company said the deal will be completed
in the next three months.

The insurer gained 0.5 percent to C$29.57 at 4 p.m. in
Toronto. The shares have climbed 12 percent this year, outpacing
the 4.7 percent advance of the 44-company Standard & Poor’s/TSX
Financials Index.